Clare hurling building for the future on very solid foundations

By John Harrington

This year’s All-Ireland SHC campaign has been billed by some as a ‘Last Dance’ for Clare’s golden generation due to the age-profile of some of the greatest players the county has ever produced.

John Conlon is 37. David McInerney, David Reidy, and Cathal Malone are 33. Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell, and Peter Duggan are 32.

Giving the enduring quality of those players it’s very possible most of them will be back in harness again next year, but it’s also reasonable to suggest that a period of transition will soon beckon for the Clare hurling team.

Replacing that calibre of player won’t be easy, but if you’re a Clare hurling supporter then there are reasons to be positive that the Banner County can remain a real force in the coming years.

Some of the team’s better performers this year have been their youngest. Seán Rynne, Niall O’Farrell, and Diarmuid Stritch are recent graduates from U20 hurling and there’s another class of apt pupils coming behind them based on Clare’s hugely impressive All-Ireland Final success in the grade this year.

Terence Fahy managed that Clare U20 team and has done so for the last five years so can offer great insight into the considerable work being done in the county in terms of coaching, athletic development, and facilities to keep Clare hurling dining at the top table.

“There has been a lot of good work going on in Clare for a long time now,” he told GAA.ie “You can trace that back to before the 2013 All-Ireland when huge work went into bringing through a lot of young players at that time.

“That All-Ireland win and the three Under-21 victories at that time were a great boost for the county but we dipped then in our cycle which is very natural.

“A considerable body of work has since been put in over a long number of years to bring us back up and I think we’re now seeing a consistency piece kicking in.

“Our minors have qualified for the All-Ireland Series for the last five years and that's a testament to the work that goes on in the Academy. It reflects consistent work at U14, U15, U16, and U17 and we're seeing very good results there.

“We've been in two All-Ireland minor finals and two All-Ireland semi-finals in two other years in the last five years.

“We have a very robust Celtic Challenge set-up to complement that. There's as much emphasis and support put into Celtic Challenge as there is into the premier minor team and that builds a great spirit in the thing.

“You can see that when they come through at Under-20 level that there are a lot of very capable players and they're in good shape and have been well tutored on the way up.

“That's a very intentional policy that was put in place by the people leading the Academy. They changed the outlook by taking a more broad-funnel approach so it was more players for longer which is why we have a lot of competent players coming through at underage.

“In fairness to the lads running the Academy they’ve done great work. The work of Club Clare then funds a lot of the initiatives and there is a hugely committed team of volunteers leading that year-round with Brian Lohan.”

The All-Ireland winning Clare U20 team played a lovely brand of hurling that combined skill with impressive athleticism.

Their ability to keep their intensity levels high in the final quarter when their opponents might flag was notable and surely has something to do with the focus they’ve put on long term athletic development in the county.

Before becoming Clare’s GAA’s Lead Strength & Conditioning Coach, Rob Mulcahy worked for a number of years as the Athletic Performance and Talent Development Lead with Clare teams from U14 up to U20 and has since been succeeded in that role by Conor Shannon.

Both men are highly regarded in their field and the fruits of their labour is now very apparent when you look at the profile of young hurler that Clare is producing.

“Rob did great work and Conor has carried that on since he’s come in,” says Fahy.

“He has become a very important pillar in the system because he has an overview of all U-20 down as far as Under-14. He has a great scan and great read of what's coming through and he guides it very well as the Head of Athletic Development in the County. He is a very strong pillar in the whole set-up.”

Another important pillar behind the scenes is Clare GAA’s Head Groundsman and Facilities Manager, David Hoey.

The former Clare hurler has overseen a significant overhaul of the facilities available to all Clare teams, particularly the county’s Centre of Excellence in Caherlohan.

“David has done huge work and that means that the coaching is supported by an increasing quality of facility for every age group,” says Fahy.

“Caherlohan has been rebooted massively. The fields are in great shape there. We have an astro-turf coming on stream now there too that will aid development as well.

“All of this is part of a strategic plan that was put together by the clubs so it is a very holistic approach driven by the people at the top.

“Deirdre Murphy spearheaded a lot of transformation with Kieran Keating and the board. Ann-Marie Moran has now taken it on. It’s coaching, it's facilities, it's people, and it's all a very intentional approach.”

Clare’s ethos of making the most of what they have also extends to their playing pool.

13 of the match-day panel that won this year’s All-Ireland U20 final also togged for the minor All-Ireland the Banner County won three years ago.

That sort of prolific follow through from minor to U20 isn’t always the norm in many counties.

Even when the crop hasn’t been quite so bountiful, Clare have been able to reap a decent harvest.

Current senior panelists Seán Rynne, Niall O’Farrell, Diarmuid Stritch, and Jack O’Neill all played for the Clare minor hurling team that suffered a chastening 6-28 to 0-6 defeat to Cork in the 2021 Munster quarter-final.

“That was a beating on a day that turned into a horrible beating,” recalls Fahy. “It was 20 points and then it was gone to 30 and then it was 40.

“Cork smelled blood that day and they kept going after it, but that Clare minor team turned into a fine under-20 team.

“There were great leaders in that team. When that minor result happened, they went back to their clubs. I saw it in my own club, the clubs built those players back up very quickly.

“They went on then and they came back into the under-20 setting and there was great capacity in that group.

“At the start of this year our 2026 U20 team referenced the leadership that was in that 2024 team. They modelled themselves on a lot of their drive and behaviours.

“There was very good retention there and it’s not a surprise to us to see them going up and performing that way, up with Brian Lohan's team. We're hoping to see them pushing it on again on Sunday, hopefully.”

The Clare senior hurling panel that won the 2013 All-Ireland Final included 10 players that had won an All-Ireland U21 title the previous year – David McInerney, Colm Galvin, Tony Kelly, Podge Collins, Conor Ryan, Patrick O’Connor, Cathal McInerney, Seadna Morey, Aaron Cunningham, and Conor McGrath.

Kelly, Galvin, Cunningham, and Morey would win three U21 All-Irelands from 2012 to 2014, as would current Clare senior star Peter Duggan.

To say they were a special generation of hurlers would be a gross understatement, and it’s unrealistic to expect this year’s crop of All-Ireland winning Clare U20 to make similarly rapid strides in the senior grade.

Three of them - Mark Sheedy, Ronan Kilroy and Jamie Moylan – made their senior debuts in the Allianz Hurling League this year and it’s reasonable to expect a few more will follow in their footsteps next year, but time and patience will be required to allow them to really find their feet as senior inter-county hurlers.

Still, there are reasons to be optimistic if you’re a Clare hurling supporter. It tends to be the players with the steeliest mentality who go on to thrive in the senior game, and this year’s Clare U20 team had that quality in spades.

“Our U20s have gotten a lot of experience, a lot of them have experienced the grade for three years and played in two Munster Finals and an All-Ireland Final,” says Fahy.

“A strong core of them have played 18 tough championship games over their three year cycle at U20.

“They’ve seen a lot of high-level action and that should stand to them going forwards.

“Everybody knows they're talented. They have the medals in the bag. To go on and win an U20 All-Ireland after winning a minor All-Ireland with the same team takes a mentality piece as well as a talent piece.

“They ticked all boxes when it came to mentality during the year. They relished the hard stuff all year.

“That gives them a good footing and it gives them a good platform. But, look, it's only what they make of it now themselves.

“The ambitious ones will continue to drive on and they will know that if their mentality slips they won't make inroads. It's the mentality piece at that level that's a big thing.”

Clare aren’t the only Munster county who will need to navigate a period of transition in the coming years.

Limerick’s great team is also nearing the end of its cycle and many of Tipperary and Waterford’s most important players are in their late twenties/early thirties.

There could soon be a period of flux in the province, but Clare hurling is now building on solid foundations and should be in a good position to come out the other side of it in a very strong position.

“It's great that as a county we can look at it and we can say, well, we have the raw material there to go forward with,” says Fahy.

“That gives hope and that gives buy-in to supports and structures. I do feel we're on the right path as a county. I do feel that there has been huge work done with strong pillars put in place for players coming on stream now.

“If we can just keep the head down we should be able to stay very competitive, please God.”